Film noir seldom gets darker than “Sunset Boulevard,” Billy Wilder’s 1950 production that is ranked among the best movies of the 20th century and is quoted as often as “Hamlet.”

Gloria Swanson portrayed Norma Desmond, the onetime queen of silent film whose mantra goes something like this: “We didn’t need voices; we had faces.” In Wilder’s film she resides in a mansion whose faded beauty reflects her own past glory. Her butler (and former husband) Max von Mayerling, played by Erich von Stroheim, is her guardian and protector. He watches sadly as Norma recedes into self-delusion.

Into this world stumbles failed screenwriter Joe Gillis, who eventually becomes Norma’s “kept” man. The audience senses immediately that the story will not end well — but it is morbidly fascinating.

Mobile Opera Orchestra, in cooperation with the Mobile Symphony, will be conducted by Andy Anderson. Audiences who attend “Sunset Blvd.” will have a multimedia experience, says D. Scott Wright, general director of Mobile Opera.

“The stage will be set with an enormous screen above the players, and the film will be used to portray the dramatic and dialogue portions of the plot while live performers will portray the musical elements,” he says. “It will be interesting to see cinema and musical theater melded into one show.

“This allows us to simultaneously present the genius of two great creative artists — the directing skills of Billy Wilder and the compositions of Andrew Lloyd Webber.”

Ron Loyd, who performs the role of butler Max von Mayerling, is a videography expert who spent countless hours with Anderson to edit and render the film to match the musical score, according to Wright: “The effect is to make this story, already a classic, come alive in a new and vibrant way.”

Anderson says the Rodgers and Hammerstein Library that handles the performance rights for the show had never heard of the idea of pairing music and film.

“What Mobile Opera is presenting is unique,” he says, “a first in an industry that typically premieres in New York or London.”

The parts should fit together nicely. Lloyd Webber purchased the Billy Wilder film entirely and used the screenplay to make the book for the musical so the film and the musical are well matched, says Anderson.

“Andy wants to match the visuals to the music and tip the proverbial hat to both the musical and the fantastic film noir at the same time,” Loyd says. “It is a true example of art inspiring art and, in this case, inspiring (hopefully) more art, and (it) is increasingly trendy.

Gloria Swanson with William Holden in "Sunset Boulevard."

“In New York I have seen major symphony orchestras as well as choral presentations use projections to help convey a new level of storytelling that does not necessarily happen in a traditional concert presentation.”

The Lloyd Webber musical has several iconic inanimate characters: Norma Desmond’s mansion on Sunset; Paramount Studios; the grand staircase that Norma descends toward her final close-up.

“The challenge will be how to suggest these to an audience in a way that does justice to the storyline of the musical and have it function as technical theater without imposing on the performances of the individuals,” Loyd says.

“Andy has come up with some great ideas, and I think the audience will get a lovely sense of location and timeline and have a new-found love for the film and the great story of ‘Sunset Boulevard.’”

Musically speaking, “Sunset Blvd.” presents its own rewards and challenges.

Laura Moore, a member of the music faculty at the University of South Alabama, is chorusmaster for this production. She says she was not familiar with “Sunset Blvd.” until Mobile Opera programmed it, “but (I) have enjoyed learning it and working through it with the ensemble.”

“I think there are two things about working with the ensemble that intrigue me most,” Moore explains. “The first is that several of the ensemble numbers in Act I evoke Big Band music, which I love. The second element is that the choral ensemble is actually made up of singers playing individual small roles.

“This is unique in the work I’ve done with Mobile Opera and allows the singers (and me) to play with character development while still maintaining a full choral sound. It also allowed me the opportunity to trust each singer in the ensemble to prepare his or her own part, while I was able to concentrate on teaching the more difficult sections.”

Vocal demands of “Sunset Blvd.” include extended ranges for the men, she says.

“There are no real baritone lines in this production — even the one part labeled ‘baritone’ pushes the high end! And there is a complicated ‘fugue’ of mixed-meter rhythms in the first big ensemble number — it’s actually labeled ‘Contrapuntal’ in the score.

“It’s a wonderful evocation of the controlled chaos that ensues when multiple friends and acquaintances are greeting each other, trading one-liners, tossing off insincere compliments, all ending with ‘Let’s have lunch.’ How much more stereotypically ‘Hollywood’ can you get?”

Preparing “Sunset Blvd.” also was a change of choral texture for Moore with Mobile Opera.

"Sunset Blvd." logo. (Courtesy Mobile Opera)

“Because I am simultaneously preparing ‘Opera for the Cure,’ ‘Turandot’ and ‘Carmina Burana’ with members of the Opera Chorus — you should see the season’s chorus rehearsal schedule! — all of which demand large forces, the smaller ensemble (16 singers) of ‘Sunset’ seems like a chamber choir,” she says. “And I enjoy the opportunity to work with this different sound and texture.”

Loyd says his first experience with this show was seeing the New York run of the Broadway production starring Glenn Close soon after he moved to New York.

“It made such an impression on me in part because of the sweeping melodies of the overture, fantastic storyline, and the amazing scenic design and execution,” he says. “Residing in one of the only theaters in New York that has hydraulic fly systems on the back wall as well as sides, top, and deck, the set literally danced — as it should.

“Perhaps my most specific memory of that production, though, was the amazing George Hearn as Max and the great song he sings, ‘Greatest Star of All.’ His performance of Sweeney Todd I saw on PBS as a teen was one of the reasons I decided to become a singing actor in the first place. During the applause of ‘Greatest Star’ I recall thinking, ‘I am going to sing that someday. I may even shave my head for it!’ I am happy the first statement is finally coming to fruition. The second is to be determined.”

The character of Max, portrayed in Wilder’s film by the great Erich von Stroheim, is a fascinating character on many levels.

“In the stage production he is omnipresent but says little and only sings one big tune,” Loyd says. “In the course of the show (and movie), we learn that not only is he Norma’s servant, but also a former husband and one of her first movie directors. Now, how many ex-husbands do you know would choose to be a butler for their former wives?

“As always, I take my clues for a character from the text. I’ve made many decisions about the Max I want to portray and they mostly come from the last line of his song: ‘I’ve seen so many idols fall/She is the greatest star of all.’

“On the surface it looks like a line that her greatest fan would say, and he is. But it also has a sense of foreboding tied to the old adage ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall.’ I think he knows this can’t end well, and he feels at least partly responsible for creating this fantasy world that Norma lives in. He has made the decision to stay until the end to catch her fall and, if he can, ease her transition into whatever is next.”

Loyd says the song “Greatest Star of All” is “downright operatic (and) demands a full range and a huge palette of dynamics that rivals any Verdi aria that I have sung.”

“(George) Hearn himself has said that he was on the road to becoming a Verdi baritone when he met (Stephen) Sondheim. This role calls for that vocal training. It is one of my favorite melodies that you (hear) over and over again in the musical, another almost operatic technique of motifs matched to characters and location.”

Patrick Howle has worked for months on the role of Joe Gillis, the down-on-his-luck screenwriter who by happenstance ends up at the mansion of faded silent-screen star Norma Desmond.

“I have become much more familiar with the score, although I have ‘known’ the show since about 1994 when I first heard the world premiere recording with Patti Lupone,” Howle says. “I have never performed the role of Joe Gillis, nor have I seen a fully staged production, but thanks to YouTube.com I’ve been able to see several clips from the original Broadway cast as well as a few from the London cast.

“ I would say that the vocal demands are great in that its a long role — he basically never leaves the stage and sings in all but about two or three numbers in the show.”

Howle says the music he likes most in this score “is not so much the sung music but the orchestral interludes that open the show and happen throughout the piece (like the car chase scene).”

“They really help set the mood of the piece and add to the ‘grandness’ of the work and Norma’s delusions,” he says.

“I have seen the movie more times than I can count. I am a huge classic movie buff, so ‘Sunset Boulevard’ has been in my movie cue for many, many years.”

Suzanne Woods has the task of portraying one of musical theater’s most bizarre characters: the larger-than-life Norma Desmond.

“I really like Lloyd Webber,” she says. “He has this unique ability, an interesting way of taking two melodies and reworking them so that they flow through the whole show. It’s one of his most unique qualities.

“Knowing the movie, I think he did an incredible job. He took a lot of the dialogue verbatim, and certain elements from the movie, and he wrote into the music and expanded on it.”

At one point, Joe mentions a ‘comeback’ to Norma, and she bristles.

“She says, ‘I hate that word! It’s a return.’ She’s not entirely willing to admit she’s a has-been, because nobody allows her to think that. She’s living in her own deluded world. She has all these moments where it’s complete make- believe, and she is so far out there — then she has moments of her own real honesty.”

In her second-act aria, “With One Look,” Norma admits that it is all a little overwhelming.

NOTE: A multimedia blending of two classics: Billy Wilder’s 1950 film-noir masterpiece; and Lloyd Webber’s musical. Wilder’s film will be projected above the stage as the singers perform.

CONDUCTOR: Andy Anderson will conduct the Mobile Opera Orchestra; Laura Moore, Ph.D., director of choral programs at the University of South Alabama, is chorusmaster for the Mobile Opera Chorus. Cathy Venable is rehearsal accompanist/coach; Daniel Driskell is rehearsal pianist.